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The opening scenes of Edmonton filmmaker Rosie Dransfeld’s documentary, Anti-Social Limited, find Chris Hoard cheerily talking about the pros and cons of being a psychopath. It’s not the sort of thing that would normally endear an audience to a subject. But Hoard, who shoots the scenes himself, talks with both humour and sadness about his lonely life, making it an appropriate opening for a sympathetic look at a troubled man and former criminal’s attempts to go straight. Is he a psychopath? The jury is still out on that one, says Dransfeld.

To use language that’s become familiar in an age when authorities regularly uncover terrorist threats, a former military intelligence officer’s plan to attack a downtown Calgary tower that houses a Veterans Affairs office had gone far beyond the aspirational stage. When the RCMP arrested the 45-year-old man at his parents’ Springbank-area acreage in January, they found two firearms, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, tactical equipment, bomb-making materials and a stew of deadly chemicals.

Amie Kristen Nottebrock was escorted out of court on Monday to begin serving her 4 1/2 year prison sentence for what all parties agree was one horrific night of bad choices that led to the deaths of two people. Nottebrock had a blood-alcohol level three times the legal limit when she sped through a red light at between 135 and 145 kilometres per hour in an 80-km/h zone and struck another vehicle, killing its driver Arshdeep Singh Brar, 20, and her passenger Danielle Victoria Russell, 21, on Jan. 8, 2012.

No one was harmed after a frightening incident in Bowness friday night, when an armed man boarded a Calgary Transit bus and barricaded himself inside it. Just after 6 p.m., the man got onto the bus in the 5700 block of Bowness Road N.W. He was carrying an “edged weapon” and ordered all the passengers off the bus.

Derek Puffer’s sisters Justine and Janine wept in court as he was deemed by a judge Friday to be not criminally responsible because of a severe mental disorder for the stabbing deaths last year of their mother Donna Lee Powers and stepfather Billy Powers, a Calgary sports icon. Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Kristine Eidsvik required only a half-hour to make the decision on Friday after hearing concurring arguments by defence counsel Alain Hepner and Crown prosecutor Jonathan Hak.

When Louise Bradley settles into her seat on an airplane, the chit chat with her seatmate invariably turns into something much more meaningful. “When I tell them what I do, every single time they start to tell me about themselves, a family member or someone else close to them,” she says. “Every person has a story to tell — yet it’s the thing we still shroud in secrecy.”

Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Ken Hashman concluded in his lengthy assessment last year that Derek Puffer should be deemed not criminally responsible for fatally stabbing his parents in their bed of their Braeside home. Hashman said Puffer’s mental state was worsening in the days leading up to the day he killed Donna Lee Powers and Calgary sports icon Billy Powers, and without treatment he could not fight what the voices were telling him.

Accused killer Derek Puffer will take the witness stand on Wednesday morning in his trial for fatally stabbing his mother Donna Lee Powers and his stepfather, Calgary sports legend Billy Powers, in their beds of their Braeside home last year, his lawyer Alain Hepner told court on Tuesday.

The public may not know until trial whether or not medical experts have come to the opinion that accused killer Matthew de Grood could be deemed not criminally responsible because of a mental disorder for the stabbing deaths of five young people at a University of Calgary year-end party last spring. Provincial court Judge Joanne Durant issued an interim publication ban on reports by two psychiatrists and a psychologist that were delivered to the court, Crown prosecutor Neil Wiberg and defence lawyer Allan Fay early Friday morning.

It’s too humid for a black turtleneck, but the film community has descended on Toronto like a flock of crows, cackling in every multiplex lobby, coffee bar and lineup. This energy can light up a marquee, launch a star or resurrect a has-been faster than any megavolt ad campaign. The buzz at the Toronto International Film Festival isn’t just loose talk — it’s a big part of the business on the road to Oscar season. Here are some titles picking up audible TIFF buzz:

A judge has ordered a four-week extension for psychiatrists to complete a report on whether Matthew de Grood could be deemed not criminally responsible for fatally stabbing five University of Calgary students at a year-end party on April 15.

Staff at the Calgary Remand Centre failed in their duty to protect an inmate who now has permanent injuries resulting from a beating at the hands of other prisoners, a lawsuit alleges. The lawsuit filed in Calgary Court of Queen’s Bench seeks unspecified damages against the provincial government, the director of the remand centre, Richard Wilson, and two inmates criminally charged in connection with the Aug. 20, 2012 assault on Denis Telyakov, a Russian citizen who was in Calgary studying English.

The race to save a Calgary woman fatally stabbed by her husband left police no choice but to shoot and kill the suspect when he came at officers with a knife, a fatality inquiry into the case concluded. Provincial court Judge Judith Shriar made that determination after presiding over an inquiry into the deaths of Sabah Yousif Rizig and Walid Mohamed Maragan on the night of Sept. 4, 2008.

Nothing in Matthew de Grood’s past behaviour foreshadowed the horrific events of April 15, in which he is accused to have fatally stabbed five students at a university year-end party, his lawyer said outside court following his client’s latest court appearance on Tuesday. Thus, said Allan Fay, that is why the court agreed to order a 30-day psychiatric assessment to determine if de Grood, 22, was not criminally responsible for Calgary’s worst mass murder in history.

No charges will be laid in connection with a pedestrian fatality over the weekend after it was determined the man had jumped on a vehicle, fell off and sustained critical injuries. Police believe a domestic-related incident had transpired before the man threw himself onto the hood of the vehicle in an attempt to stop a relative from leaving a residence, tumbled off and hit his head on the pavement.

You may want to think about adding a few new moves to your exercise regime to help you get through Stampede. Along with a few sit-ups to Ed Allen or a million burpies with Pete Estabrooks, you right-handed people may want to use your left to stir your coffee and you lefties should try using your right hand to brush your teeth. Doing the hand switcheroo can help us improve our self-control.

Chatting with MLA Craig Coolahan about the Alberta Heritage Fund this week, a more burning topic of public debate sparked up. Should the Alberta government run its own pot stores? The NDP MLA for Calgary-Klein said the topic keeps resurfacing, particularly as the deadline for public feedback on Alberta’s new marijuana framework wraps up Friday. […]

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